Joe diGenova, Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer and Brent Bozell joined WMAL on Monday.
Mornings on the Mall
Monday, May 18, 2015
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor
Executive Producer: Heather Smith
5am – A/B/C Bozell: ABC Should Remove Stephanopoulos from Campaign Coverage. (Newsbusters) — MRC president Brent Bozell issued a statement Friday on George Stephanopoulos and his Clinton Foundation donation scandal: “George Stephanopoulos’ apology and recusal from moderating the 2016 presidential debate is not enough. Stephanopoulos’ contributions to the Clinton Foundation and his close association with the Clintons make him unfit to play the important role of an impartial, balanced and fair news anchorman on any ABC political based programming involving the 2016 election. He is a Clinton partisan and a liberal commentator and he has been deceiving his audience. ABC is an accomplice to this deception and now has an ethics and integrity problem. The most appropriate way for ABC to resolve this issue is by forbidding Stephanopoulos from anchoring any political coverage of the 2016 cycle or they will face the same integrity and ethics problems now plaguing NBC.”
5am – D Amtrak News:
- Amtrak says it will restore full operations along the busy Northeast Corridor early Monday morning following the deadly train derailment in Philadelphia. Amtrak president Joseph Boardman says in a statement Sunday that repairs were made with passenger safety in mind and “complete compliance” with the directives of federal regulators. The Federal Railroad Administration on Saturday ordered Amtrak to expand use of a speed-control system long in effect for southbound trains near the crash site to northbound trains. The company was also ordered to look at all curves on the Northeast Corridor for safety and increase speed limit signs. Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine the reason for the train’s acceleration and sorting through conflicting reports about an object striking its windshield. The derailment Tuesday killed eight people and injured more than 200 others.
- Amtrak says it will restore full operations along the busy Northeast Corridor early Monday morning following the deadly train derailment in Philadelphia. Amtrak president Joseph Boardman says in a statement Sunday that repairs were made with passenger safety in mind and “complete compliance” with the directives of federal regulators. The Federal Railroad Administration on Saturday ordered Amtrak to expand use of a speed-control system long in effect for southbound trains near the crash site to northbound trains. The company was also ordered to look at all curves on the Northeast Corridor for safety and increase speed limit signs. Meanwhile, investigators are trying to determine the reason for the train’s acceleration and sorting through conflicting reports about an object striking its windshield. The derailment Tuesday killed eight people and injured more than 200 others.
- Boehner: ‘Stupid’ to say Amtrak funding cuts caused crash. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday it was “stupid” to ask about Democrats’ assertions that GOP cuts to Amtrak funding might have caused this week’s deadly train derailment in Philadelphia. “Are you really going to ask such a stupid question?” Boehner interjected after a reporter began asking him about transportation funding cuts. Democrats, he said, “started this yesterday. It’s all about funding. It’s all about funding. Well, obviously it’s not about funding.” Instead, Boehner pointed out the train was traveling around a curve at more than 100 miles per hour, more than twice the speed limit.
5am – E FBI: Hacker claimed to have taken over flight’s engine controls. (CNN) A cybersecurity consultant told the FBI he hacked into computer systems aboard airliners up to 20 times and managed to control an aircraft engine during a flight, according to federal court documents. Chris Roberts was detained by the FBI in April following a United Airlines flight to Syracuse, New York, after officials saw Twitter posts he made discussing hacking into the plane he was traveling on. An FBI search warrant application filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York describes the investigation of Roberts for possible computer crimes. During FBI interviews in February and March, the document says, Roberts told investigators he hacked into in-flight entertainment systems aboard aircraft. He claimed to have done so 15 to 20 times from 2011 to 2014. He also said, according to the document, that once he had hacked into the systems and then overwrote code, enabling him to issue a “CLB,” or climb, command.
6am – A/B/C Republican field pressed on Iraq – Washington (CNN) Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was the latest Republican on Sunday to struggle to explain whether it was a “mistake” for the United States to invade Iraq in 2003. In an interview on Fox News Sunday, the Republican presidential contender disputed a question about whether he’d flip-flopped. After former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush struggled with inquiries about Iraq last week, Rubio said — knowing what he knows now — that he wouldn’t have launched the war. Six weeks earlier, Rubio had said definitively “the world is a better place because Saddam Hussein doesn’t run Iraq.” “That was not the same question,” Rubio said Sunday. “The question was whether it was a mistake, and my answer was, ‘It’s not a mistake.’ I still say it’s not a mistake because the President was presented with intelligence that said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.”
6am – D GoFundMe $3,745 – Really!?!? (Wedding Wire) – “I just ran across a GoFundMe for a bride and groom asking for $ for their Jamaican honeymoon. They have a goal of 4k and are almost there! What possibly makes these people think this is okay to do?! The greed & money-grabby-ness (sorry- not a word). of some people just amazes me. Gross.” JamieLynn Wedding: 06/18/2016 Posted On: May 17, 2015 at 12:25 PM •
6am – E 2016 News:
- Lincoln Dinner highlights: Walker in front, Fiorina cut off, Lindsey Graham is a comedian. DES MOINES, Iowa — From pancake breakfasts to fundraisers to candidate meet-and-greets, this was a big weekend for presidential politicking in Iowa. Most of the major Republican candidates could be found pressing the flesh in some corner of the first-in-the-nation caucus state, culminating with 11 hopefuls converging here in a downtown ballroom filled with 1400 party members and activists Saturday night. All were hoping for a breakthrough moment at the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner — the kind of electric response that Scott Walker generated in a single January speech that propelled him to the head of the pack. Short of that, there were more practical goals — namely standing out in a crowded field of candidates and convincing skeptical Iowans to take a long look at their campaigns.
- Rick Perry teases June presidential announcement: (Reuters) — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is set to announce whether or not he will seek the White House for a second time on June 4 in Dallas. Anita Perry, the former first lady of Texas, linked to an invitation to a “special announcement” on Twitter and said she and her husband “have been discussing the future of this great country and how our family can play a role.” Lest there was any mystery at to the event’s purpose, an aide confirmed to msnbc that “Perry will be announcing his intentions on whether or not he will be running for POTUS.”
- Romney and Holyfield rumble in Salt Lake. Salt Lake City (CNN) Call it the Quake on the Lake. Hopping around shirtless in a pair of red silk trunks, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney faced off against five-time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield for a boxing match in Salt Lake City on Friday. Few would have predicted the spectacle three years ago, when Romney was looking more presidential and his opponent was President Barack Obama. The bout raised money for CharityVision, an organization that provides surgeries to heal blindness. For two rounds, Romney, 68, and Holyfield, 52, went head-to-head, each landing getle blows that appeared more like a tickle fight than a boxing match. Although Holyfield took a tumble on the mat, Romney threw in the towel in the second round. The bout didn’t reach Foreman vs. Ali levels of sports history, but the sight of the last runner-up in the race for the White House dancing his way around a ring elevated it to must-watch status.
7am – A INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia
- D.C. rabbi sentenced to 6½ years in prison on voyeurism charges
- Prosecutor After Boston Marathon Bomber Is Sentenced to Death: ’This Was Not a Religious Crime’
7am – B ISIS
- ISIS leader killed in raid, Abu Sayyaf, oversaw illicit oil and gas operations for terror group. Senior Islamic State leader Abu Sayyaf, also known as Mohammed Shalabi, was killed overnight Friday when U.S. Special Operations forces carried out a major raid deep inside eastern Syria, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said Saturday. Abu Sayyaf was involved in the extremist group’s military operations and helped direct its illicit oil, gas and financial operations, Carter said in a statement. The ISIL leader’s wife was captured. No U.S. servicemembers were killed or injured during the raid. In an odd twist, Syrian state media claimed a similar operation in the same oilfield as the U.S. operation.
- Iraqi city falls to Islamic State militants. – Islamic State routs last elite Iraqi units from Ramadi in huge defeat for Baghdad. BAGHDAD — The Islamic State seized control of the key Iraqi city of Ramadi on Sunday, the biggest victory for the extremists this year despite stepped-up U.S.-led airstrikes targeting the region, according to officials in Anbar province. “Ramadi has fallen,” Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for Anbar province, said as Iraqi forces withdrew from the city. “The city was completely taken. … It was a gradual deterioration. The military is fleeing.” Ramadi, the provincial capital of western Anbar province, is the latest battleground in the Iraqi government’s efforts to drive out the Islamic State from areas the group seized last year. With the help of U.S.-led airstrikes, the Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters had made gains against the Islamic State elsewhere in the country, including re-capturing the northern city of Tikrit.
7am – C Al Sharpton’s daughter sues city for $5M after spraining ankle. She learned at the feet of a master. (NY Post) — Shakedown artist Al Sharpton’s eldest child wants $5 million from city taxpayers after she fell in the street and sprained her ankle, court records show. Dominique Sharpton, 28, says she was “severely injured, bruised and wounded” when she stumbled over uneven pavement at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway downtown last year, according to a lawsuit. Currently on vacation in Bali, the membership director for her gadfly dad’s National Action Network claims she “still suffers and will continue to suffer for some time physical pain and bodily injuries,” according to the suit filed against the city departments of Transportation and Environmental Protection. “I sprained my ankle real bad lol,” she wrote in a post to Instagram after the Oct. 2 fall. She was pictured in a walking boot in the weeks following the tumble, but by December, Dominique was good to go for NAN’s Justice for All march in Washington, DC, and for a New Year’s Eve jaunt to Miami Beach. And despite claiming “permanent physical pain” in a breathless notice of claim, there are social-media shots of her in high heels, and another of her climbing a ladder to decorate a Christmas tree. The legal shakedown is right out of her dad’s pay-to-playbook.
7am – D Under Armour pulls Iwo Jima-inspired ‘Band of Ballers’ T-shirt. Under Armour says it has yanked its “Band of Ballers” T-shirt after the company faced criticism for the shirt’s comparison to servicemen raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. The shirt Under Armour designed showed men raising a basketball hoop in a similar fashion as past military heroes. On May 16, the sports-apparel brand tweeted, “We have taken the necessary steps to remove this shirt, and any related shirts, from all retail and ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
7am – E Commencement Speeches:
- Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about justice in the workplace and Jimmy Carter at George Washington University’s commencement.
- Matthew McConaughey’s Houston Commencement Speech: Don’t be Entitled, You are Not A Victim. Matthew McConaughey delivered a commencement speech to the Spring 2015 graduating class at the University of Houston Friday evening. ABC News reports that while many did not know what to expect from the mega star, he was received with loud cheers and screams the moment he stepped foot on the field at TDECU Stadium. “Congratulations class of 2015,” he began. “Life’s not fair. It never was, isn’t now and won’t ever be. Do not fall into the entitled trap of feeling like you’re a victim. You are not.”
- George W. Bush: C students, you too can be president. George W. Bush offered non-honor students some words of encouragement during a commencement speech on Saturday: C students, you too can be president. The former president addressed Southern Methodist University students on Saturday afternoon in Dallas. He said it was the first time giving a commencement speech since he left the White House. More than 2,000 students received degrees and marked the university’s 100th May graduation event.
8am – A INTERVIEW — LT. COL TONY SHAFFER – a CIA trained former senior intelligence officer and the New York Times bestselling author of Operation “Dark Heart: Spycraft an Special Operations on the Frontlines of Afghanistan – And The Path to Victory.” His latest book is The Last Line. He is a senior fellow with both the London Center for Policy Research and the Center for Advanced Defense Studies
- ISIS leader killed in raid, Abu Sayyaf, oversaw illicit oil and gas operations for terror group.
- Iraqi city falls to Islamic State militants.
8am – B Entertainment News:
- Janet Jackson new album: She’s baaaaaack. Janet Jackson announced her new album and tour
- Mad Men series finale
- Final week for letterman, Wednesday last show
- 2015 Billboard Music Awards:
- Sam Smith gives ENTIRE speech with cue cards
- Taylor Swift debuted her star-studded #BadBlood music video at the Billboard Music Awards
- One Direction with the first win of the night for top duo/group. And they gave a shout-out to Zayn!
8am – C Pope Francis Did Not Call Abbas an ‘Angel of Peace’ (Ellen Carmichael/National Review) — Sunday morning, Americans awakened to headlines proclaiming that Pope Francis had called Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas “an angel of peace” during an event at the Vatican the day before. News organizations gleefully printed this claim across newspapers and news sites around the globe. Agence France-Presse’s headline: “Pope meets ‘angel of peace’ Abbas after treaty announcement.” BBC: “Pope Francis calls Palestinians’ Abbas ‘angel of peace.’” The New York Times: “In Vatican, Abbas Is Praised as ‘Angel of Peace.’” Even Jonathan S. Tobin of Commentary magazine published a piece entitled, “Sorry, Your Holiness, But Abbas Is No Angel.” But they couldn’t be more wrong. Here is the account of Pope Francis’s remarks by the Vatican reporter for La Stampa, an Italian newspaper: As is tradition with heads of State or of government, Francis presented a gift to the Palestinian leader, commenting: “May the angel of peace destroy the evil spirit of war. I thought of you: May you be an angel of peace.” Pope Francis had called Abu Mazen a “man of peace” when he visited Bethlehem in May 2014, just as he called the then Israeli prime minister, Shimon Peres, a “man of peace” during his subsequent visit to Jerusalem. The Argentinian pope had then invited both leaders to a prayer vigil for peace in the Vatican Gardens which took place on 8 June that year and was also attended by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew.
8am – D INTERVIEW – BRENT BOZELL – President, Media Research Center
- Bozell: ABC Should Remove Stephanopoulos from Campaign Coverage
- Rand Paul Says He’s Boycotting George Stephanopoulos Over Close Ties to Clintons
TOMORROW: Larry Kudlow, Gen. Jack Keane and Jake Tapper
